Power plays: The best bets from the game expo

LOS ANGELES — What does the year ahead hold for video games? The next-generation Xbox 360 is on the market. PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii — pronounced "whee" or "wheeee!" depending on how big of a fan you are — are coming by the end of this year. So the rest of 2006 should be just bursting with video-game goodness, right?

Well, not exactly.

Judging by the recent Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, video-game conference, this is a year of indecision. No one knows which console will catch fire. And if you believe anyone who claims to know which one is the best, I've got a bridge in Vice City to sell you.

Guys in XXL "Star Wars" T-shirts debated the tech specs of consoles with the passion of Talmudic scholars. And with good reason.

When it comes out in November, the PS3 will be priced at $500 to $600 (and Sony will likely add a couple of bills to the total by tacking on the typical "bundled extra pack" of peripherals). The Xbox 360's bundle costs $400 to $500. Nintendo, which has not officially announced a price, will probably be the cheapest, at a measly $200 to $300, plus bundle.

Keep in mind that these prices don't include any games, which may be ready to crack the $60-a-pop barrier. At these prices, a hardcore gamer who wants all three systems had better be ready to hock his Honda Civic — and hope to get at least two grand for it.

But instead of debating whether these machines are worth the money, some of my media colleagues are fanning the partisan flames of the "new console wars" instead — driving the video-game hype to obscene new heights. Do a news search on any of the consoles, and you'll be inundated with such headlines as "E3 2006: We Tell You Who Really Won." But like the equally silly Cola Wars of the 1980s, the new console wars are a myth.

All the new machines have strengths and weaknesses. The innovative Wii was one of the highlights of E3, but will come with the same creaky graphics as the current GameCube (using the 4:3 NTSC format, rather than HD). The technologically superior PS3 has all the bells and whistles gamers want — and a giant price tag to match. The Xbox 360 was the first console out of the gate, but with an unimpressive lineup of post-launch games, Microsoft has only sold 5 million units.

In comparison, in the past year Nintendo sold 6 million copies of one game alone: "Nintendogs" for the handheld Nintendo DS.

No one is a clear winner or loser — yet.

PC games are popular

With consoles more or less in a holding pattern, PC games are having a small resurgence. I spent the first half of '06 happily typing away on my circa-2003 computer, leveling up my wizard in "EverQuest II," and letting the Orcs run wild in "The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II."

Turns out I'm not the only one who finds PC games to be a good value right now. "World of Warcraft" is one of the year's biggest success stories, even spawning a movie deal. ("World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade" also got a lot of attention at E3 from gamers excited that this expansion will let them level up to great powers and ride winged mounts.)

If you have a PC in relatively good shape for playing recent releases, it makes sense to stay away from the consoles for now.

We'll shell out big bucks at some point, but not solely because of a new console's tech specs. Buyers make decisions because a game comes out that they're dying to play.

Sure, revolutionary hardware design gets game designers excited. But to think of it another way: When was the last time you picked a movie based on whether it came with THX high-fidelity sound?

The best in show

So, if it is the games that really sell the machines, and not the other way around, then which are the ones that will matter? Which were the best in show at E3?

• Let's start with my favorite: Will Wright's "Spore," a PC game (EA Games). Wright was the brainiac behind the other genre-defining game of the last 10 years, "The Sims." In "Spore," you create your own species and see your creatures through their complete evolution: new generations, technological advancements and colonization of other worlds. While all that sounds pretty high-concept, "Spore" is defined by its goofy, down-to-earth, laugh-out-loud humor.

• Technically, Indy isn't arriving until next summer, but that still doesn't stem the excitement surrounding "Indiana Jones 2007" (Xbox 360, PS3). The game designers are proud of the new "euphora" technology that delivers better in-game physics during our hero's scuffles, but mostly, it's just about donning the fedora and taking Indy for a spin.

• Speaking of supermen, "Justice League: Heroes" (Xbox, PS2) is another title on my pre-order list, a bash-and-smash RPG. With considerably more style than the "Justice League" cartoon of my childhood, the game includes Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and the rest as playable characters. Bring on the magic lasso!

• If you're partial to Marvel's gang of fighters, consider "Marvel: Ultimate Alliance" (PC, PS2, Xbox, Xbox 360, Wii). Evidently, Wolverine and Spider-Man were kicking back one night and decided to save on union dues by going into crime-fighting business together.

• At E3, a rough character called Snake was the belle of the ball. Previous titles in the "Metal Gear Solid" series — known for its brutal action-adventure game play — earned the game a strong reputation. Hundreds of fans sat and watched a preview of the game's latest installment over and over, awed. "Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots" is the kind of game that will sell PS3s by the truckload.

• For something completely different, there's the sing-along game "SingStar" (PS3). Karaoke games are old news, but this one scores singers based on whether they're on key and in tune — or not. (If only that were a feature for anyone who wanted to sing in public.) The lineup of songs is also better than average, with the requisite hits from the '80s plus songs from quirkier bands such as Franz Ferdinand, Outkast and Scissor Sisters.

• For the new Wii system, two games will likely be must-haves: "The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess" and "Super Mario Galaxy," both of which were loads of fun to play with the Wii's weird, TV-remote-plus-nunchuck controller. I don't know whether the novelty of the Wii will fade quickly, but I admire that Nintendo is doing something new with its next-generation console, as demonstrated by these two games.

Of course, these are only the tip of the iceberg. "Halo 3" will likely be released on the 360 just in time to steal some thunder from the PS3's launch. "Grand Theft Auto 4" comes out on both 360 and PS3, but unless it's massively reinvented, the series is becoming a little too formulaic for its own good. "Scarface: The World Is Yours" bears mentioning not because of its originality — it's mostly a GTA clone for the PS2 — but because in-game success is measured by "balls" points, which, if you're familiar with the movie, are exactly what you think they are.

Whether any of these games will be as engaging as they seemed at E3 is a different story.

But for now, play-testing them was enough to give me hope that 2007 could be a good year for games — and the new consoles we'll play them on.

Jennifer Buckendorff regularly reviews video games for The Seattle Times: jenb@elvis.com